Luck of the Irish with a Swedish beauty!

Last winter we were revelling in the rare opportunity to colour-ring Waxwings at Newtown. Exactly 100 birds were caught including one previously ringed on Fair Isle and then re-trapped in Aberdeen. Subsequent re-sightings of these birds during the same winter came from far and wide in the UK but also included one in Switzerland, the second furthest record ever of a BTO ringed Waxwing.

This winter the blogs have been largely silent on the subject of Waxwings as the mild winter has presumably kept them at more northern wintering locations. Confirmation of this arrived yesterday when Waxwing colour-ring co-ordinator Raymond Duncan forwarded me an email from Hans Petersson with attached photographs clearly showing one of the birds we had colour-ringed feeding on apples in his garden in Holmen Lane-Ryr, Uddevalla, Sweden. 

Waxwing White/Blue right feeding on apples near Uddervalla, Sweden

This bird was originally colour-ringed on 9th December at Newtown College and was one of those done by my Irish mate Damian Clarke on a flying visit. Guess there must be something in the old saying after all!

Much more on the subject can be read about from the Waxwing expert Raymond Duncan on the Grampian Ringing Group's blog 

http://grampianringing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/waxwings-on-move.html